It's amazing how busy one time of year can be. Kids are still into the heat of the summer, wanting to spend long evenings at the pool. I am in the mode of routine and schedule, gathering school supplies, and arranging our after school activities so there is no overlap.

r has been doing gymnastics and loving it (sorry no pictures). Our goal for the new school year is to get all A's, as opposed to a few A's, mostly B's and a C. We have explained to her that at the beginning of a new school year, especially at a new school, you start with all A's, you just have to keep them. If she can keep her A's she can add horseback riding in addition to gymnastics to her activity schedule (we were going to do riding lessons earlier, but her grades were such a struggle that we took it away before she ever got started). Now if she can't keep the A's and gets some B's that's okay, but she will lose horseback riding and only do gymnastics. If there is even one C, she will lose both riding lessons and gymnastics until she gets it up for 2 grading periods.

We are hoping this is the motivation she needs to begin to care about her grades and getting her work done. In the past I am not sure that it registered with her because she had never really had an extra curricular activity that could be taken away. At the beginning of the year last year, we tried using horseback riding as our motivator, but having never had something on the schedule I think it never really mattered if we said we would take it away because she never knew what it was like to have an activity that could be taken away. Now she has with gymnastics and I am seeing her more motivated to make that happen each week.

K is gearing up for flag football. He is wearing his Buckeyes jersey at least once a week. He can't wait for it to start. Until then, his obsession is with the Hilliard pool. They have a blue slide for kids his age that he LOVES!! It took about 1/2 hour to coax him to go down the slide, but now that he has it is very hard to get him to do anything else. Everyday after school that is the first thing he says to me.

R is preparing for the 6th grade. We are excited and nervous at the same time. We spoke to the guidance counselor today. They said there are about 100 kids on a team, they have 6 teams at the school. Each team had 3 homeroom classes, with 28-30 in each room. That is more kids in her homeroom class than there were in all of the 5th grade at her old school. AMAZING and intimidating. We had a long take tonight about what to expect and how to react and inviting her to come to us. She is a good girl, so we don't need to worry, but we have to do our part as parents to communicate to her our interest and keep the invitation open so that when the time comes that she needs us she will feel comfortable. I think we are making some great progress with her, but still have a bit to work on.

k is sassy as ever. She is all about the social party, even though she is not the most friendly around new faces. This past weekend, she wasn't feeling well (turns out she had a double ear infection) when we were invited to the neighbors for dinner. As soon as she heard we were going to a "little party" that's all she could take about. She had a great time interacting with the adults, she wouldn't drift far from my side because she didn't feel well. However, the smile never left her face.

All in all things have been hectic. We are finally settling into our neighborhood (we LOVE our new house and neighbors), getting ready for school (just have a few supplies left to buy), and preparing for the calendar as we add extra curricular to the routine. Last year was our transition year, this year is our stride year. We are so excited to see what it will bring.